It was the morning meal for the royal sisters. It was the time where the Princess of the Sun was preparing to begin her day while the Princess of the Night was just about to end hers. Even without her regalia, the Princess of the Sun was as elegant as ever as she ate. Quietly munching on her food, she gazed across the table at her sister.
Throughout history, and especially after the return of Princess Luna, it was known that the two Royal Sisters represented opposites. One was the yang to the other’s yin. The elder, Celestia, represented the sun and was calm, patient, and reserved. The younger, Luna, represented the moon and was emotional, headstrong, and brash. It was not surprising that Celestia, raiser of the sun, was a morning pony. The younger sister, raiser of the moon, was not a “morning pony”.
Celestia quietly chuckled to herself as she gazed upon her sister. Even after a thousand years, her sister had not changed a bit in her habits. Luna sat there, her eyes closed while her regalia rested haphazardly and unevenly on her frame. The younger princess was quite eager to get to bed.
Munching loudly with eyes closed, Luna ate her cereal. Even with the finest chefs in all of Equestria that could prepare the finest of meals, when Luna learned of the sugary confection that was invented during her absence, she was hooked. Celestia wasn’t sure when it happened, but at some point the two had decided on having similar meals when together. Celestia’s dinner would be Luna’s breakfast, and vice versa.
“And how are you this morning, dear sister?” Celestia asked as she took a sip of water.
“Murrmm mphmm,” Luna mumbled as she took another bite.
“Really, Sister, is it too much to ask to keep your regalia straight? It is as if you had just put them on,” Celestia sighed.
Luna slowly and lazily opened an eye, chewing slowly. “Yeeshh,” she mumbled through a mouthful of cereal.
Celestia just giggled as she went back to her food.
“Sheesh,” Luna said under her breath, “I am a princess! I will wear it as I please! Besides, I am not doing anything public right now. I’ll be going to bed soon.”
“What was that Luna?” Celestia asked cheerily.
“Nothing, Sister,” grumbled Luna.
The two sisters continued on with their meals, enjoying the time to themselves.
“Psst, Luna,” a voice whispered from under the table as something poked her hind leg.
“EEEEK!” Luna shrieked as her eyes shot open, the hair on the back of her neck standing up. In her surprise she flung her spoon upwards with great force.
Celestia’s eyes widened at the sudden interruption. Her gaze slowly drifted upwards to rest on Luna’s spoon, embedded in the stone ceiling. “Luna, is everything all right?” Celestia asked, concern in her voice.
“Your Majesty, we heard a disturbance! Is everything satisfactory?” a lunar guard said as he rushed in with his partner.
“Yes, yes, everything is fine. We were simply surprised,” Luna said as she straightened her mane and regalia with her hooves. “We wish to speak to our sister in private.”
“At once, Your Majesty!” the pair of guards said as they bowed. They quickly turned around and closed the doors behind them, returning to their posts.
Luna's eyes scanned the room, flicking from left to right.
“Sister, is everything fine?” Celestia asked again as she stood up.
“Mort, what are you doing? You nearly scared me to death!” Luna said as she looked down at the table.
“Mort is here?” Celestia replied, raising an eyebrow and sitting back down.
“Sorry! I didn’t mean to frighten anypony!” a voice from under the table said.
Suddenly, a cloaked skull rose through the table and turned around. “Hello, Celestia! Hello, Luna! Oh, it is nice to see you two again,” said Mort.
Celestia and Luna stared at the cloaked skull for a couple of seconds. Soon after that, each sister brought a hoof up to her face, trying to stifle her laughter.
“I—is something wrong?” Mort asked worriedly. He looked around, trying to find what was wrong. Upon looking down, he realized that his head was in Luna’s cereal bowl.
“My, my, Luna, that is an interesting cereal choice you have,” Celestia giggled.
“Indeed it is,” Luna giggled back. “A shade in every box!”
“Oh, oh my,” Mort said. The rest of his body phased through the table and floated in between the two sisters.
“Mort! What a pleasant surprise. Tell us, what brings you to Canterlot at this hour?” Luna said.
“Oh, well, I actually just came back from a job and, well, thought I should tell you first-hoof before I leave again,” he said.
“What happened?” Celestia asked.
“Well, you know Mortar Brick, right?”
Both Celestia and Luna’s faces grew grim. “He did not make it, did he? I was afraid of that. She is so young and has suffered so much, and now another tragedy has befallen her,” Celestia said sadly, her ears slightly drooping.
“Oh, no, no!” Mort blurted. “I came to tell you the opposite! He made it through and is now awake and expected to make a full recovery.”
Celestia then gave a huge sigh of relief. “That is wondrous news indeed. Thank you for telling us, Mort. It does make me happy, knowing that she got him back. Finally something good has come her way.”
“Huzzah! That is most wondrous news!” Luna shouted, “Sister, we should tell Silver at once!”
“Luna, we have interfered enough with her life. I think it would be best if she learned it on her own.” Celestia replied.
“Whatever do you mean sister?”
“This is her and Mortar’s moment, there is no need for us to interfere. We can talk to her later. Right now, just let her enjoy herself.” Celestia answered as she raised her teacup. “Come sister, let us finish our meal.
“Mort, would you care to join us?”
Mort let out a loud sigh, dropping his head. “You know I’d love to, but duty calls. I have to wing it out to Las Pegasus, and after that...” He trailed off, his tone saying everything.
“Oh,” Luna replied as her ears dropped slightly. “We understand, Mort. Hopefully we can spend some more time together soon.”
“Me too,” he said.
“You are always welcome here, Mort,” Celestia replied, offering a gentle smile. “So whenever is a good time for you.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” he told her, rising towards the ceiling. “Good luck with Silver Skip.” Before he had even hit the plaster, he vanished from sight.
The morning air was cool and moist. Mort could hear the train starting up in the distance as the Canterlot citizenry prepared to travel to the nearby towns for work or pleasure.
The pony shade was surprised to see someone waiting for him above the castle.
“Heya, Mort!” Forma said, letting her forelegs dangling over a cloud she was lying on. This time she was a pegasus with a dark coat and a blue mohawk. “Mind if I fly with you for a bit?”
“Huh? Oh, sure.” It was rare for shades to accompany each other, given all the territory they had to cover for their species, but...
“Oh. That’s right,” Mort muttered.
“Something up?” Forma asked, floating down to him.
“Oh, nothing,” he said, waving his hoof dismissively. He didn’t want even to think about it right now. Forma didn’t seem all that bothered, anyway. “Let’s go.”
The two of them flew off. In moments, the city was at their back, and on the horizon the sun was just beginning to rise, casting its morning rays across Equestria. Across the continent, ponies were waking up, and a number of unfortunate accidents wouldn’t be far behind.
They had been flying together for a minute when he finally spoke. “I'm surprised you didn't tell him.”
“Hmm?” The brown owl that was Forma looked at her fellow shade. “Tell him what?”
“Well, about the possession and everything,” Mort said.
“Oh, right.” She flew a loop in the air, returning as a phoenix. “I had thought that you already told him. You're always around when anything attacks Celestia, so I doubt you didn't know the details.”
“True, but I just figured that you'd be able to explain it better. You know, being their shade and everything.” He turned himself upside down, watching the country of Equestria pass by in a blur below. A farm and a small town zipped by beneath, and soon they were passing over the edge of the Everfree Forest. It was followed by an influx of data that revolved around natural laws that didn’t exist elsewhere—laws that, for instance, allowed the weather to act on its own without assistance from pegasi. “So, why didn't you? It seemed like such a surefire thing.”
“Oh, I agree!” The phoenix twirled, burning bright. Her flames extended until they were the trail left by a pegasus mare, who soared through the sky in a Wonderbolts jumpsuit. “If I told him, he would've known for certain that Chrys—I mean, Silver Skip, loved him deeply.”
“Which goes back to my original question,” he said, righting himself. He swerved a little to the left, avoiding a bird in mid-flight.
The fiery-maned pegasus shrugged.“To be completely honest? I was testing him.”
If Mort had eyebrows, one of them would have been raised in confusion. “Huh?”
“Think about it. Mortar chose to go back to Silver, simply because he believed in her that strongly. Few ponies would be so certain of how they felt. Now I'm extra confident that things will be all right between them.” She clapped her hooves together, and her mane turned blue, with lightning bolts becoming her cutie mark. “Besides, if he still had cold hooves, you would have just told him about the possession and attempted sacrifice anyway.”
“Sacrifice?” he said confused. “What are you talking about?”
Forma stared at him incredulously. “What am I talking about? Lilith wanted Silver to sacrifice Mortar’s life and literally take his heart. It would’ve restored her and everything.”
Mort stared at her in horror, his eyes shrinking to pinpricks and jaw hanging open.
Forma was stunned, her eyes widening and jaw dropping. “You really didn’t know?”
“No!” he exclaimed. “This is the first I’ve ever heard of it! Why wasn’t I informed?”
Forma blinked her eyes slowly, then she suddenly started to laugh. Her coat turned white and the blue mane became blond and frizzy.
“Forma, this isn’t funny!” Mort said, becoming irritated. “A pony came close to getting murdered, and I wasn’t even there!”
“Are you sure, Mort?” she said, sounding quite happy. “Perhaps it was just that the chances of her accepting the offer were smaller than we would have thought. True, she had considered it at the time. There was still a part of her obsessed with revenge against the princesses. Yet in the end it was her ‘heart’ that prevailed and let her spare him.” A glow surrounded her, and flying in the pegasus’ place was now a pink alicorn, with a crystal heart for a cutie mark. “She’d rather be with Mortar and befriend Celestia and Luna rather than become a full fledged queen and be alone. True love over absolute power! Isn’t that romantic?”
“Oh—well, yeah, I guess it is,” he admitted. Truth be told, he had been a little doubtful about Chrysalis reforming, and was half-certain he might find himself in front of her after some act of violence on her part. That her best chance of returning to power couldn’t even warrant his observation spoke volumes about how much she changed.
It got him thinking about the antagonist in all this. “You know, this reminds me. How did it go with—Lilith, was it?”
“Yes,” she said, her form increasing in size, a black carapace covering her entire body as she took on the form of the giant changeling. “I'll admit she was a little difficult. She'd been piggybacking from one changeling queen to another for so many generations, and she was very reluctant to let Silver be. She even threatened to haunt her, Mortar, and their descendants for generations to come.”
“Yikes.”
“Yes, ‘yikes.’” She sighed, her form shrinking, holes appearing in her hooves and wings as she took the form of Chrysalis. “You know, the only thing that was passed down from Lilith to Chrysalis was the stubborness. Other than that, they were completely different. Lilith was malicious in every sense of the word. Even before I awoke to my sentience, something about her always felt ‘off’ to me. If I’m to be completely honest, Mort, I think the first emotion I ever felt was envy.”
“Envy?” he said, confused. “For what?”
“For you,” she said, as she transformed into another pegasus, this one with a white coat and a frizzy, blond mane. “Ponies are very kind and sweet, have so many different personalities, and make for good company. Lilith, however, was about as cutthroat as one could be. She was dirty, manipulative, and astoundingly arrogant. But beneath that blusterous exterior, she was deeply afraid of dying. She knew that even with all her power, she couldn’t hold back the sands of time. Age would claim her, if nothing else.
“So she did everything she could to make sure that we would never meet. What she did to her descendants was, frankly, deplorable, trying to steal their bodies while leaving them starved. The real irony of it all is that her wanton cruelty and disregard for her descendants is probably what sparked the first inklings of sympathy within me. It put me on a path where I started to personally care about her children, and even hope that they could survive and adapt to such a harsh world. Fortunately, with each new generation of kings and queens, they gradually became less like Lilith. They gained some semblance of a heart, so to speak.” As she spoke, she shifted from one changeling form to another, all different, save similarities in height, and a lack of compound eyes.
“But she has passed on?” Mort asked. They were now leaving the airspace of the Everfree Forest, and Mort could feel the natural laws reasserting themselves. “They won’t have to worry about her spirit causing trouble again?”
“Oh, don't worry. She has.” Forma glowed radiantly, and in an instant Celestia had replaced the pegasus. “After your good friend incinerated her corporeal body, she lost nearly all the power she had accumulated over the centuries. It would take many years just to begin recouping that lost strength.” Celestia's form shrunk, and she looked like Lilith again, but this time not nearly as opposing. She was thin, her hair was falling out, and her carapace looked brittle. “Ultimately, I was able to convince Lilith that it was time to move on, but it wasn’t easy. She was still very reluctant to leave Silver be, and I had to bite my tongue a few times to avoid saying anything that would enrage her.” She tiredly. “I never realized that being so serious was so exhausting. I don’t know how Thanasia can be like that all the time.”
“So how did you convince her?”
“Cold, hard facts,” she said, transforming into a gray earth pony that wore spectacles and a sweater. “I told her that attempts to bring back the changelings would just be an exercise in futility, given how much different the world is now compared to back then. Ponies have found ways to exchange information quickly with each other, their magical knowledge has advanced, and with both princesses back and stronger than ever, she would have to deal with opposition more powerful and far better coordinated than it was those many years ago. Aside from that, I gave her a rough estimate of how long it’d take her to become that powerful again; there was a strong chance that the complete isolation and inability to do anything would have driven her mad. Even if she could hold on to some semblance of her personality, by then Silver and several generations of descendants would probably be dead and buried.” Forma grew quiet, and Mort could detect the sadness behind her words.
“So yes,” she said, recovering, “any way you looked at it, all that staying here would accomplish would be to hold onto an ambition that could never be fulfilled, and to pursue a revenge that may very well become moot in an instant. When she was confronted with all that, I’m happy to say that she finally saw reason and decided to pass on.”
“That’s good,” Mort said, relieved. “So it’s all over, then!”
“Yes, it’s over,” she said. Her form started to waver. “The time of changelings has come to an end. It came sooner than some, but it came all the same...” A look of sorrow suddenly crossed her face, and the white-maned pony suddenly shrunk and turned black, losing all semblance of form, until it was an amorphous blob with green eyes.
Mort became concerned. She hadn't looked like this in centuries. She was always embarrassed describing how she looked originally, and she’d said she would never go back to such a “boring” form. “Forma, what's wrong?”
“Oh, don't you see, Mort? It's over. I'm a changeling shade, and the changelings are finished.” She became a pterodactyl. “Gone.” A dodo bird. “Extinct.”
Mort looked at her sympathetically. That fact had been at the back of his mind ever since he saw Forma tonight, but he hadn't dared to bring it up. “Well, I personally think you've been a great shade, Forma. I'm sure when a new species pops up—”
“I don't want a new species!” The dodo was replaced by a small orange pegasus filly with a purple mane, tears brimming in her eyes. “The changelings were my species! I know they did terrible things, Mort, but I loved them all the same! The way they looked, the wondrous structures they could make, the way they could shape shift into so many things... What sort of species could they give me after that? An insect? A bird? A lizard?” She turned into all of those things in turn before settling on her amorphous form again. “I'd rather disappear than—”
In an instant, Mort was in front of her, and the ex–changeling shade collided with him. She reversed herself, her form twisting into a serpentine shape with an amalgamation of limbs from different creatures, most significantly a dragon-esque body and a horned pony head. “Hey, what's the big...” Her voice tapered off when she saw the hard stare Mort was giving her.
“We are not going to have talk like that,” he told her sternly.
“But—”
“No buts!” He floated upward until his head was level with hers. To an outsider, it would have looked as if the pale pony were having a staring contest with the spirit of chaos. “I know you're upset about what happened to the changelings. I can't even begin to imagine what it must feel like to see something you've watched over for so long die out like they did.” He gently grasped her head between his hooves, staring straight into her eyes. “But that doesn't mean you have to disappear too.”
Forma stared at him silently for a moment, her body gradually shrinking and changing into that of a normal changeling. “Mort, I don't want to reap some primitive species that can't even say a word to me. You're not the only one who likes to talk your souls. The drones were boring, I know, but the queens and kings...” She trailed off, lost in memory.
He let his hooves slip, his gaze softening. “You're right,” he said. “So maybe you shouldn’t have to do a new species, or at least not right away. Maybe...” He tapped his jaw thoughtfully. “Maybe... you could help us.”
She tilted her head to one side in confusion. “What do you mean?”
“Ponies, griffons, and the other sentient species are all growing in population,” he said. “It's only getting harder for the rest of us. Maybe you can help us out. You're an incredible shape shifter, Forma. You could stand in for any of us when we’re occupied.”
Forma bit her lip, her form changing to match Mort’s. “Would I—have to look like you guys?”
It wasn’t meant as an insult. Mort knew that Forma could never stand to be only a few shapes or hold one shape for more than a few minutes. “Of course not,” he said cheerfully. “Most ponies don't even have me right, remember? They think I'm tall, dark, grim, and TALK LIKE THIS.”
The two of them giggled at the incredibly deep voice.
“Not just me,” he said, reining himself in. “Keres is supposed to have a hauntingly beautiful voice...”
“But she's mute,” Forma said, becoming a griffin who wore silk robes with intricate gold patterns.
“Right, and Cloudwalker's supposed to be incredibly wise and mature...”
“But he's the exact opposite,” she chuckled, transforming into a buffalo who wore a wide array of beads and feathers, his face marked with white, green, and blue paint.
“Exactly. So what if you won't be what they expect? So long as you're there to comfort them, it shouldn't matter what you look like.”
The buffalo smiled and suddenly transformed into the spitting image of Twilight Sparkle, who squeezed the pony shade in a big hug. “Oh, you're the best ‘big brother’ anyone could hope for, Mort!”
For a moment, he was stunned. It was so rare for Forma to be anything but lighthearted. In the past, there had always been some playful jab in her actions and transformations. This time, it was entirely sincere.
It hadn't occurred to him until now how little they called each other family.
He returned her hug, rubbing her back. “Thank you, Forma.”
A minute later, the two of them released. In Twilight's place, there was now Luna. “So, where to now?”
“Well, I need to get to Las Pegasus real quick.” He took a moment to observe his surroundings. The ground below was devoid of almost all grass, and a quick calculation put the two of them near the edge of the desert. “A few ponies are going to be waking up to a tiger in their bathroom—don't ask, I'll tell you later—and there's a fifty-fifty chance of one or two getting mauled to death. Then I have to rush over to Dodge City, and... well, same-old, same-old.”
The countenance of Luna frowned at him.
“What?” he asked.
Forma sighed. “I’m sorry, Mort. I've been meaning to tell you this since last night, but... Don't you think you're getting a little too involved?”
“What do you mean?”
Forma scratched her foreleg, looking uncomfortable. “Well, you really went out of your way for Mortar last night. It should have just been enough to tell him what to do. You didn't have to explain everything about Chrysalis, or what she's been through, or constantly check on him, or call me, or—”
“So what if I did?” he asked defensively. “It's not like I did anything wrong! I didn't help him directly, and in the end it helped Silver out, too!”
“And you'll always have my gratitude for that, Mort. I mean it. Just...” She closed her eyes, and Mort gasped a little as she grew, her blue coat become as gray as ash, the moon cutie mark replaced with a green-flamed candle. Eyes like lanterns gazed out sadly from behind white hair. “Just remember you're a shade first, before anything else. No matter how painful it might be. And it will be painful. I speak from experience...”
He nodded stiffly at the image of Thanasia, almost disconcerted from hearing such soft and sad words from a normally distant and stoic figure.
Thanasia disappeared in a flash, now replaced by a pegasus mare with a cream-colored coat and a brown mane, sporting the image of a flaming tire on her flank. “Well, I gotta see go see the boss now, see what she thinks of your idea,” she said, her cheery tone a complete reversal from what it had been a moment ago . “Try not to be late to Dodge City, okay?”
Forma took off, her form changing several more times before Mort lost her.
The pony shade floated there, thinking about what Forma had said. It sounded almost like a warning, but he didn't see the point of it. He knew he was a shade before anything else. Really, he should've felt at least a little insulted by the implications.
So why did it bother him so much, then?
He went on his way to Las Pegasus, soon putting Forma's last words to him in the back of his mind.
He had a job to do.